Mid-Prairie High School teacher Sara Puttman gave a presentation on her endowment funded 3D pens for Calculus at the school board meeting April 24. This is one of the four projects that were funded for the Fund of Academic Excellence’s pilot program.

The first year pilot program of the Fund for Academic Excellence is almost over, and the fund’s steering committee is looking forward to expanding the program from Mid- Prairie High School to the entire school district.

The endowment fund was created by the Mid-Prairie Class of 1966 last fall, when they contributed over $66,000 to generate income for new academic, arts, and extracurricular projects for the high school. District Business Manager Jeff Swartzentruber explains the motivations of this fund, “This class of ‘66 was trying to dream about ‘How can we give back to the place that gave us our start?’ and wanted to do something that wasn’t just ‘Oh, we’ll hand out a $1,000 or $2,000 scholarship every year in the name of the Class of ‘66’ and that student goes off and does their thing. They were interested in seeing students be successful, but they were thinking ‘We really want those students to be successful with enhanced opportunities while they’re in school at Mid Prairie.’”

A steering committee was formed to implement the fund including Swartzentruber, parents, faculty, students, and alumni. There were two calls for proposals last year and four funded projects in mathematics, economics, computer simulations, and photography. These four projects were presented at the school board meeting on April 24.

Mid-Prairie High School teacher Chris Tyler gave a presentation on the use of trading company Lending Club for his Economics class during the school board meeting April 24. This is one of the four projects that were funded for the Fund of Academic Excellence’s pilot program.

They’re now working on raising funds to expand to the whole district. Steering committee member Cheryl Miller says their goal is $250,000. Miller talks about the vision of the endowment, “We have a motto: learn, earn, return;, and that motto really speaks to the importance of students going through school, learning, going out into the world, developing a career, developing a work life, and then coming back into the school, and helping the next generation of students.” The committee has a three-pronged strategy to increase funds: social media outreach to alumni, parents, and teachers; outreach to graduating classes timed with five and 10 year reunions, and a major donor campaign.

The steering committee’s goal is to raise $50,000 this summer. Miller says “Raising some money very quickly over the summer will take a lot of work. It’s a sizable challenge. We don’t need to raise all of that money but we need to raise enough money to be able to expand to the district next fall, by next September.” The Fund for Academic Excellence will be accepting applications for new projects this September.